May 7, 2012

Ross' Rad Reads Award: Confessions of a Scary Mommy

I love a book that makes me laugh out loud. One time I was reading on a plane, and I was laughing so hard I had tears. The woman sitting next to me leaned over and said, "I just have to know what you are reading. You are having so much fun."

I was a little hesitant to tell her. I was reading The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love. If you are not familiar with Jill Conner Brown, she's quite raunchy. My seat mate was a very prim and proper looking older lady.

Jill Smokler has written that kind of book. No, not raunchy. It will, however, make you laugh so hard and so often, anyone in your vicinity will be straining to get a look at the cover.

But you will not be embarrassed to tell people you are reading this book. In fact, it is one you will want to recommend to friends and strangers alike.

The full title is Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary. It should be considered the closest thing to an actual mommy manual that ever existed.

Honest. Irreverant. These are good adjectives. I don't even have to say any more about this book; you are going to go out and buy it. If you haven't already. Which most of you probably have.

But in case you haven't, I shall go on...

Beyond the laughs this book admits some raw truths about being Mommy. Jill has built an environment on her site where it is OK to admit motherhood is hard. That you don't love every minute of it. And sometimes, you suck at it.

Admitting these things does not make you a bad mother. It makes you a real one. Jill is working to end the idealistic view our society likes to project by creating one that is far more honest. Her book is an extension of her blog, a mix of new content interspersed with popular Mommy confessions from the site.

With the Scary Mommy Manifesto, women are given to permission to be imperfect. To do the best they can and accept that it is good enough. To not always know what they are doing. To live and let live and not judge other moms, who are also doing the best they can.

And you know where I stand on that issue!

I had the opportunity to meet Jill recently when she was in Florida for a book signing. She read a chapter, answered questions from the audience (which included two The Mom Pledge Community members!) and talked about the process of being published. She was lovely.

AND, she signed a copy of her book that I will be giving away! All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment below (and be sure to include a valid email address). The deadline is May 13 - Mother's Day. Consider it a gift to yourself...

And Jill, I'm giving you my Ross' Rad Reads Award! Thank you for giving us all permission to just be ourselves!